Chapter 55: 54. Like last time.

"Lily, is there a reason why you cling so much to me?"

"Nope〜."

Having nothing else, or more precisely, not wanting to do anything else at the moment. Julia decided to have breakfast. Sitting on a chair in her tent, she simply instructed the woman who had "woken" her up to bring her something.

While they waited, Lily started to demand Julia’s attention more than normally. Julia, of course, didn’t mind Lily clinging to her. And she more than happily rewarded her with a head pat.

"I just love Master a lot〜."

Lily’s voice sounded like a cat’s purr as she lay down on Julia’s lap. Smiling sweetly at Julia, her tail brushed onto Julia’s bare legs.

"Yeah, I like you too."

Julia took a sip of tea with one hand and rubbed Lily’s belly with the other. Julia had to remind herself for a few seconds that Lily is a person, not a dog. As Julia wanted to remove her hand from Lily, her hand was grabbed by Lily, and Lily’s pleading expression placed right back.

"I really want to know why you're doing this."

Julia murmured while she continued to rub Lily’s belly, who seemed to be enjoying herself greatly.

"It is a natural instinct of any of the beast-men races to show submissiveness to the one they like."

Kana answered Julia’s murmur with her emotionless face while sitting herself closer to Julia.

"It can be said that they want to be dominated."

As she said so, Kana leaned against Julia’s shoulder. Julia felt overwhelmed. She was used to Lily’s clinginess, but for Kana to have any physical contact with Julia while in her humanoid form was more than unusual. And so, she didn’t know how to react.

The best thing that came to her mind was to slightly hug her, pressing Kana against her body. Kana didn’t react in any way, but she seemed happy. Well, this is certainly nice. Julia smiled, savoring the feeling.

"That’s not true. I don’t want to be dominated."

Lily pouted as she glanced at Kana. She was clearly offended by what Kana said.

"I only enjoy being a master’s."

Lily’s pout turned into a smile. Julia returned the smile as her hand was guided by Lily towards her ears. Not needing further clues, Julia began rubbing them. which spurred Lily to let out a light giggle.

"Honestly, the two of you."

Julia chuckled, looking at the two girls clinging to her. Their peaceful expressions made Julia forget where she was for a moment. But unfortunately, the world didn’t seem so generous.

"Your highness."

The young female soldier reminded Julia of where they were with her sudden presence. Kana, of course, assumed her sword form. Leaving Julia's head patting Lily while having a sword lean onto her.

"What is it?"

Julia sounded slightly annoyed as she addressed her. It wasn’t like she intended it, but having her patting session disrupted made her just slightly angry.

"I am sorry to disrupt your... activity. But the fighting in the city seems to have concluded."

The young soldier bowed slightly while informing Julia of the situation. Julia didn’t look at her and just continued to pat Lily for a couple of seconds more before reacting.

"So, who won then?"

"The only banner flying above Turhal now is ours."

Julia didn’t react, but Lily seemed to notice something off about her. Did I really just stay here and watch our allies fight instead of helping them? How is it different from back then? Julia began internally cursing herself.

It was her task to take the city, and yet she let someone completely else do the heavy work while she herself did nothing. There was the risk that the nobles would complain about it. That they would see Julia as unqualified for the throne.

"Let’s move out and meet our ally then."

"As you wish, your highness."

The soldier left to give Julia’s order to the others. Leaving Julia alone with Lily and the sword form Kana.

Julia didn’t really care what the nobles thought of her, but it could make things difficult for Loriam. So, Julia would rather avoid that. Besides, it couldn’t hurt to meet with the person who made her life easier.

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Once the camp was packed up, the troops moved out towards the city. Multiple thick pillars of smoke continued to rise from it. Julia looked ahead at the city wall slowly approaching. The field that surrounded the path was covered in a light layer of snow. Julia shivered slightly from the cold.

A gentle, pleasant, reassuring warmth came from Kana, who was hanging on her waist. Julia squeezed the handle of the sword and calmed down slightly. What would she even need to be afraid of anyway? The city was under friendly force after all.

Lily’s arms wrapped around Julia’s waist and tightened lightly once several figures were visible on the city wall. As they got closer, Julia began feeling that something was off. But she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong.

"Master!"

Julia felt Lily suddenly drag her off the horse, making them both roll on the ground. The left side of her body ached from the impact. She wanted to know what the hell had come over Lily, but when she looked up from the snow-covered ground, She saw one of the soldiers, pierced with an arrow, lying nearby.

"Your Highness!"

She heard a panicked voice getting closer to her, but she didn’t pay attention to it. Instead, she stared at the vampire bleeding out in front of her. The vampire was bleeding from the wound, which didn’t show any sight of healing up.

"Your highness, are you alright?"

The panicked voice was now right next to her. Julia looked up from the corpse and at the face of a panicked woman. A hint of relief showed on her face as she saw that Julia was unharmed.

Julia saw the other soldiers standing with shields in a defensive formation around her. While Lily was laying on her with no sight of being hurt.

"What are you doing!? Are you blind!?"

"You could have hit her highness, you traitors!"

Another soldier yelled out at the figures on the city wall. And soon another joined him. The only answer they got was a rain of arrows flying toward them.

"What is going on?! Aren’t they supposed to be on our side?!"

The soldiers bundled up their shields together, resisting the arrows. The female soldier positioned herself in front of Julia, shielding her with her body.

"Your Highness, your orders."

Julia came back to her senses and observed what was happening, assessing the situation. Before giving out her command.

"Return fire. We will show these traitors."

"As you wish."

The young woman gestured for a few of the soldiers. And they began casting spells toward the figures on the city wall.

As her soldiers returned fire and few of them worked on getting her out of sight. Julia wondered why an army of vampires would try to attack her. Or did she piss off some noble just that much?

"Don’t stand there! Kill them!"

Julia watched as some figures in black hoods jumped off the wall and with a high speed ran towards Julia’s soldiers. Julia’s soldiers focused their spells on these unknown enemies, however, they avoided each spell as if it were nothing.

One of them jumped over the soldiers and aimed their blade at Julia. Lily grabbed the sword of the fallen soldier and used it to defend Julia. The assailant was thrown to the side by Lily, and their hood had fallen off. Reviling the face of a cat-eared woman.

Julia likewise used Kana to defend against another of the hooded enemies. As Kana’s blade crossed with the dagger of the enemy, Julia was sure she saw a glimpse of surprise under the hood.

"What now?"

"Don’t know, let her decide."

The two assailants talked to each other in perfect vampiric, without paying any mind to those around them. Their eyes focused on Julia alone. In a fraction of a second, they jumped high in the sky. Throwing several small items covered in magic circles down.

The soldiers and Lily wanted to protect Julia from these unknown things. And so they threw themselves between Julia and the items.

As the items hit the ground and a dark red mist began emerging from them, it quickly enveloped Julia and those immediately around her. She tried to not inhale this strange mist and get out of it with Lily. But she found herself unable to hold her breath for much longer and ended up inhaling the mist.

As she did, she felt the strength leave her body, and after walking a few more meters, she collapsed to the ground. As did all others.

"Ma…ster."

Lily reached toward Julia with her hand, visibly having a hard time staying conscious. Julia reached out and grabbed Lily’s hand, but even this small movement seemed extremely exhausting to her. As her eyes started to close, she saw two people walking towards her.